Monster in the Darkness
The Monster In The Darkness (also known as the Creature In The Darkness, Monster-san, Thing In the Shadow, MitD or CitD or TitS) is an enigmatic, childlike monster who was originally designated as Xykon's secret weapon. Redcloak and Right-eye rescued the Monster from a circus. It is an as-yet unnamed creature of indeterminate species that is kept by Xykon as a big vicious monster to reveal at the last moment to thwart the heroes. Since Xykon never has the chance to call the monster out of the darkness in his first battle with the Order of the Stick, and refuses to reveal it until the climax, it remains hidden in darkness visible only as two glowing yellow eyes. When outside, the monster is forced by Xykon and Redcloak to hide under a pink Hello Kitty umbrella that spreads magical darkness. However, it desires to come out of the shadow, or be otherwise illuminated, even going as far as to beg a group of lantern archons to attack it with their damaging light rays in order to light it up. Exactly what type of creature the monster is still remains unknown, although according to Rich Burlew it is not a unique creature type made up for the story and can potentially be discerned by the audience. " and dead Flopsy.]] Although The MitD is supposed to be the ultimate weapon at the disposal of the lich Xykon, he is terrified of practically everything, including the dark. Redcloak himself corrected Xykon on this matter by saying "Sir, he's about as scary as musty styrofoam". By all accounts, it isn't really that vicious, possibly due to so much time in the shadows waiting for its grand entrance. Rather, it is timid, has low self-esteem, is prone to inane observations, displays childish behavior (e.g. throwing a tea party with a stuffed dragon, the dead Roy and paralyzed O-Chul), seems to suffer from nyctophobia and appears to be completely oblivious about most things around it. For example, it was unable to recognize Dorukan's Gate, even though it was in front of it. This has become a recurring joke in the strip - every time one of the evil characters mentions the gates, the monster is ignorant of what the gate means or even its existence. The Monster in the Darkness is very powerful but seems to be completely ignorant of this fact. Despite calling it a "bozo", Xykon has implied that it is very powerful, a suggestion which is verified in its "battle" against Miko Miyazaki where she hits the Monster with a full round of attacks. While both Roy and Hinjo were previously severely injured by such attacks, the Monster merely said it "tickled," implying a massive damage reduction. (This kind of thing happens in Comic 477: when Belkar stabs the monster five times, the monster doesn't even notice his attack.)It then challenges Miko to a game of "Who Can Hit the Lightest", but subsequently loses said game by knocking Miko and her horse clear through a wall and several miles further, implying a colossal strength on its part. That the monster actually was trying to hit her lightly seems to be confirmed by its disappointment at having "lost." When angered, its shout produces a shockwave loud enough to blow both Haley Starshine and Belkar Bitterleaf off their feet, and intimidate them into making a trade of stew(which it loves) for the bodies of Roy and O-Chul instead of taking them away from the Monster's tea party. Shortly afterwards, as Haley and Belkar escape with Roy's corpse and O-Chul, the Monster stomps the ground at the direction of one of the Demon Cockroaches("Like you did when Xykon wouldn't buy you those Transformers"), which results in a massive, ground-cracking earthquake. Despite the fact that the Monster causes the earthquake without any acknowledged effort on its part, it feels tired and hungry after having done so. This may indicate that although the Monster has great powers, its reserves of energy are considerably more limited. On the subject of its power, it seems to also possess magic as well as great strength. In comic 661 Xykon is about to kill O-Chul and Vaarsuvius the MitD simply says "Escape" and both of the two adventurers are teleported back to the rest of the party. It is revealed during a conversation between the Monster and the imprisoned O-Chul that Xykon tries to feed the Monster live children in an attempt to make him scarier. This fails, however, as the Monster refuse to eat children(or veal) and just dumps them in the trash whenever Xykon's attention is focused elsewhere. The Monster and O-Chul have come to regard each other as friends, going so far as to have O-Chul refer to it as Monster-san since the Monster doesn't know what its own name is. According to the expansion book Start of Darkness, the Monster comes originally from the "deep rainforest," but is then caught by a pair of hunters (who comment how unusual it is that one of his species would be in a rainforest, and how strange it is that it can talk). It later came to be in the hands of a circus group, who showed him off as part of their show. At least one audience was absolutely horrified and disgusted by its appearance. Redcloak said he knew what the creature was and could escape easily if it wanted to, effective saying that the monster is not an unique creature. Redcloak steals it away (without releasing it from its box) and Xykon afterwards takes charge of it, charming it to eat Redcloak and spit out the phylactery on the chance that Redcloak betrays him. Category:Team Evil